Licensing and Certification

The Department of Health and Senior Services, Section for Long Term Care Regulation is responsible for inspecting and issuing state licenses to
residential care facilities (RCF and RCF*), assisted
living facilities (ALF and ALF**), intermediate care facilities (ICF),
skilled nursing facilities (SNF), and long term care units operating inside hospitals in the state. The Section
also performs activities at
intermediate care and skilled nursing facilities in order to certify
them to provide services to eligible Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.

There are approximately 1,144 long term care facilities with more than 79,000 beds licensed and inspected by the Section. Of these facilities, 500 are skilled nursing facilities, 30 are intermediate care facilities, 397 are residential care facilities, 217 are assisted living facilities and 12 are hospital-based long-term care units. Approximately 500 facilities participate in the Federal Medicaid and/or Medicare programs.

The Licensure and Certification Unit maintains the responsibility
for licensing these long term care facilities and for certifying
those facilities participating in the Medicare and/or Medicaid
programs. The Unit receives applications for licensure and certification,
issues licenses to facilities meeting licensure criteria, certifies
facilities for Medicare/Medicaid participating, and maintains state
and federal databases.

The Section for Long Term Care Regulation is also responsible for certifying and inspecting Intermediate Care Facilities for the Intellectually Disabled (ICF/ID). These Medicaid certified facilities care for persons with developmental disabilities.

The Department of Mental Health (DMH) licenses these facilities based on the outcome of the Section for Long Term Care's annual inspection. For more information regarding the licensing of ICF/ID facilities, visit the DMH web site.